Mobile telephone operators make many services available to their customers who are provided with mobile communications devices, including services giving access to public networks such as the Internet and private networks such as Intranet company networks. However, because of the high density of mobile device used simultaneously in places known as “hot spots”, such as train stations and airports, access times to these services are often long and interruptions are relatively frequent.
One prior art solution for solving this problem consists in enabling some mobile devices to connect to wireless local area networks (WLAN) that are already installed, in particular in some hotspots, and are connected to the Internet via an access provider and are sometimes connected to Intranet networks via the Internet. However, in order to be able to connect to a WLAN, a user must be aware that he is in the coverage area of a WLAN to which he is entitled to connect his mobile device.
Also, the WLAN must be able to authenticate the user, whose mobile device must be provided not only with the standard hardware for accessing that type of network, for example a removable or integrated WLAN card, but also with specific additional hardware, and in particular a device for reading a second SIM card adapted to ensure that use by the end user is sufficiently secure. The specific additional hardware increases the overall size and/or weight of the mobile device. Moreover, the user must obtain it himself, as it is not installed as standard.
The document GB 2 313 257 describes a method enabling a user to determine if he is in the coverage area of a WLAN, but in that case it is the user who must take the initiative and set up a call to a server connected to the main network in order to find out if he is in the coverage area of a local area network he is entitled to access. Either the terminal determines the user's position (for example using a GPS receiver), and the user indicates his position to the server, which then takes account of that position and, where appropriate, supplies data identifying one or more local area networks whose coverage areas include the position of the terminal, or the server provides data that defines coverage areas of existing local area networks at numerous positions, in which case the terminal must then itself compare its position with the coverage areas of the local area networks, to determine for itself if it is in a coverage area. That prior art method has the drawback of requiring the user to take the initiative to set up a call to a server.